THE FIFTEEN BOOKS OF
AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS
BISHOP OF HIPPO
ON THE TRINITY

BOOK III.

THE QUESTION IS DISCUSSED WITH RESPECT TO THE APPEARANCES OF GOD SPOKEN OF
IN THE PREVIOUS BOOK, WHICH WERE MADE UNDER BODILY FORMS, WHETHER ONLY A CREATURE
WAS FORMED, FOR THE PURPOSE OF MANIFESTING GOD TO HUMAN SIGHT IN SUCH WAY AS
HE AT EACH TIME JUDGED FITTING; OR WHETHER ANGELS, ALREADY EXISTING, WERE SO
SENT AS TO SPEAK IN THE PERSON OF GOD; AND THIS, EITHER BY ASSUMING A BODILY
APPEARANCE FROM THE BODILY CREATURE, OR BY CHANGING THEIR OWN BODIES INTO WHATEVER
FORMS THEY WOULD, SUITABLE TO THE PARTICULAR ACTION, ACCORDING TO THE POWER
GIVEN TO THEM BY THE CREATOR; WHILE THE ESSENCE ITSELF OF GOD WAS NEVER SEEN
IN ITSELF.

PREFACE.--WHY AUGUSTIN WRITES OF THE TRINITY. WHAT HE CLAIMS FROM READERS,
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IN THE PREVIOUS BOOK.

1. I WOULD have them believe, who are willing to do so, that I had rather
bestow labor in reading, than in dictating what others may read. But let those
who will not believe this, but are both able and willing to make the trial,
grant me whatever answers may be gathered from reading, either to my own inquiries,
or to those interrogations of others, which for the character I bear in the
service of Christ, and for the zeal with which I burn that our faith may be
fortified against the error of carnal and natural men,(1) I must needs bear
with; and then let them see how easily I would refrain from this labor, and
with how much even of joy I would give my pen a holiday. But if what we have
read upon these subjects is either not sufficiently set forth, or is not to
be found at all, or at any rate cannot easily be found by us, in the Latin
tongue, while we are not so familiar with the Greek tongue as to be found in
any way competent to read and understand therein the books that treat of such
topics, in which class of writings, to judge by the little which has been translated
for us, I do not doubt that everything is contained that we can profitably
seek;(2) while yet I cannot resist my brethren when they exact of me, by that
law by which I am made their servant, that I should minister above all to their
praiseworthy studies in Christ by my tongue and by my pen, of which two yoked
together in me, Love is the charioteer; and while I myself confess that I have
by writing learned many things which I did not know: if this be so, then this
my labor ought not to seem superfluous to any idle, or to any very learned
reader; while it is needful in no small part, to many who are busy, and to
many who are unlearned, and among these last to myself. Supported, then, very
greatly, and aided by the writings we have already read of others on this subject,
I have undertaken to inquire into and to discuss, whatever it seems to my judgment
can be reverently inquired into and discussed, concerning the Trinity, the
one supreme and supremely good God; He himself exhorting me to the inquiry,
and helping me in the discussion of it; in order that, if there are no other
writings of the kind, there may be something for those to have and read who
are willing and capable; but if any exist already, then it may be so much the
easier to find some such writings, the more there are of the kind in existence.

2. Assuredly, as in all my writings I desire not only a pious reader, but
also a free corrector, so I especially desire this in the present inquiry,
which is so important that I would there were as many inquirers as there are
objectors. But as I do not wish my reader to be bound down to me, so I do not
wish my corrector to be bound down to himself. Let not the former love me more
than the catholic faith, let not the latter love himself more than the catholic
verity. As I say to the former, Do not be willing to yield to my writings as
to the canonical Scriptures; but in these, when thou hast discovered even what
thou didst not previously believe, believe it unhesitatingly; while in those,
unless thou hast understood with certainty what thou didst not before hold
as certain, be unwilling to hold it fast: so I say to the latter, Do not be
willing to amend my writings by thine own opinion or disputation, but from
the divine text, or by unanswerable reason. If thou apprehendest anything of
truth in them, its being there does not make it mine, but by understanding
and loving it, let it be both thine and mine; but if thou convictest anything
of falsehood, though it have once been mine, in that I was guilty of the error,
yet now by avoiding it let it be neither thine nor mine.

3. Let
this third book, then, take its beginning at the point to which the second
had reached. For
after we
had arrived at this, I that we desired to
show that the Son was not l therefore less than the Father, because the Father
sent and the Son was sent; nor the Holy Spirit therefore less than both, because
we read in the Gospel that He was sent both by the one and by the other; we
undertook then to inquire, since the Son was sent thither, where He already
was, for He came into the world, and "was in the world;"(1) since
also the Holy Spirit was sent thither, where He already was, for "the
Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, and that which containeth all things
hath knowledge of the voice;"(2) whether the Lord was therefore "sent" because
He was born in the flesh so as to be no longer hidden, and, as it were, came
forth from the bosom of the Father, and appeared to the eyes of men in the
form of a servant; and the Holy Spirit also was therefore "sent," because
He too was seen as a dove in a corporeal form,(3) and in cloven tongues, like
as of fire;(4) so that, to be sent, when spoken of them, means to go forth
to the sight of mortals in some corporeal form from a spiritual hiding-place;
which, because the Father did not, He is said only to have sent, not also to
be sent. Our next inquiry was, Why the Father also is not sometimes said to
be sent, if He Himself was manifested through those corporeal forms which appeared
to the eyes of the ancients. But if the Son was manifested at these times,
why should He be said to be "sent" so long after, when the fullness
of time was come that He should be born of a woman;(5) since, indeed, He was
sent before also, viz., when He appeared corporeally in those forms? Or if
He were not rightly said to be "sent," except when the Word was made
flesh;(6) why should the Holy Spirit be read of as "sent," of whom
such an incarnation never took place? But if neither the Father, nor the Son,
but the Holy Spirit was manifested through these ancient appearances; why should
He too be said to be "sent" now, when He was also sent before in
these various manners? Next we subdivided the subject, that it might be handled
most carefully, and we made the question threefold, of which one part was explained
in the second book, and two remain, which I shall next proceed to discuss.
For we have already inquired and determined, that not only the Father, nor
only the Son, nor only the Holy Spirit appeared in those ancient corporeal
forms and visions. but either indifferently the Lord God, who is understood
to be the Trinity itself, or some one person of the Trinity, whichever the
text of the narrative might signify, through intimations supplied by the context.

CHAP. 1.--WHAT IS TO BE SAID THEREUPON.

4. Let
us, then, continue our inquiry now in order. For under the second head in
that division the
question occurred,
whether the creature was formed for
that work only, wherein God, in such way as He then judged it to be fitting,
might be manifested to human sight; or whether angels, who already existed,
were so sent as to speak in the person of God, assuming a corporeal appearance
from the corporeal creature for the purpose of their ministry; or else changing
and turning their own body itself, to which they are not subject, but govern
it as subject to themselves, into whatever forms they would, that were appropriate
and fit for their actions, according to the power given to them by the Creator.
And when this part of the question shall have been investigated, so far as
God permit, then, lastly, we shall have to see to that question with which
we started, viz., whether the Son and the Holy Spirit were also "sent" before;
and if it be so, then what difference there is between that sending and the
one of which we read in the Gospel; or whether neither of them were sent, except
when either the Son was made of the Virgin Mary, or when the Holy Spirit appeared
in a visible form, whether as a dove or in tongues of fire.(1)

5. I confess, however, that it reaches further than my purpose can carry me
to inquire whether the angels. secretly working by the spiritual quality of
their body abiding still in them, assume somewhat from the inferior and more
bodily elements, which, being fitted to themselves, they may change and turn
like a garment into any corporeal appearances they will, and those appearances
themselves also real, as real water was changed by our Lord into real wine;(2)
or whether they transform their own bodies themselves into that which they
would, suitably to the particular act. But it does not signify to the present
question which of these it is. And although I be not able to understand these
things by actual experience, seeing that I am a man, as the angels do who do
these things, and know them better than I know them, viz., how far my body
is changeable by the operation of my will; whether it be by my own experience
of myself, or by that which I have gathered from others; yet it is not necessary
here to say which of these alternatives I am to believe upon the authority
of the divine Scriptures, lest I be compelled to prove it, and so my discourse
become too long upon a subject which does not concern the present question.

6. Our
present inquiry then is, whether the angels were then the agents both in
showing those bodily
appearances
to the eyes of men and in sounding those
words in their ears when the sensible creature itself, serving the Creator
at His beck, was turned for the time into whatever was needful; as it is written
in the book of Wisdom, "For the creature serveth Thee, who art the Maker,
increaseth his strength against the unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth
his strength for the benefit of such as put their trust in Thee. Therefore,
even then was it altered into all fashions, and was obedient to Thy grace,
that nourisheth all things according to the of them that longed for Thee."(3)
For the power of the will of God reaches through the spiritual creature even
to visible and sensible effects of the corporeal creature. For where does not
the wisdom of the omnipotent God work that which He wills, which "reacheth
from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth order all things"?(4)

CHAP. 2.--THE WILL OF GOD IS THE HIGHER CAUSE OF ALL CORPOREAL CHANGE. THIS
IS SHOWN BY AN EXAMPLE.

7. But there is one kind of natural order in the conversion and changeableness
of bodies, which, although itself also serves the bidding of God, yet by reason
of its unbroken continuity has ceased to cause wonder; as is the case, for
instance, with those things which are changed either in very short, or at any
rate not long, intervals of time, in heaven, or earth, or sea; whether it be
in rising, or in setting, or in change of appearance from time to time; while
there are other things, which, although arising from that same order, yet are
less familiar on account of longer intervals of time. And these things, although
the many stupidly wonder at them, yet are understood by those who inquire into
this present world, and in the progress of generations become so much the less
wonderful, as they are the more often repeated and known by more people. Such
are the eclipses of the sun and moon, and some kinds of stars, appearing seldom,
and earthquakes, and unnatural births of living creatures, and other similar
things; of which not one takes place without the will of God; yet, that it
is so, is to most people not apparent. And so the vanity of philosophers has
found license to assign these things also to other causes, true causes perhaps,
but proximate ones, while they are not able to see at all the cause that is
higher than all others, that is, the will of God; or again to false causes,
and to such as are not even put forward out of any diligent investigation of
corporeal things and motions, but from their own guess and error.

8. I will
bring forward an example, if I can, that this may be plainer. There is, we
know, in the
human body,
a certain bulk of flesh and an outward form,
and an arrangement and distraction of limbs, and a temperament of health; and
a soul breathed into it governs this body, and that soul a rational one; which,
therefore, although changeable, yet can be partaker of that unchangeable wisdom,
so that "it may partake of that which is in and of itself;"(5) as
it is written in the Psalm concerning all saints, of whom as of living stones
is built that Jerusalem which is the mother of us all, eternal in the heavens.
For so it is sung, "Jerusalem is builded as a city, that is partaker of
that which is in and of itself."(1) For "in and of itself," in
that place, is understood of that chiefest and unchangeable good, which is
God, and of His own wisdom and will. To whom is sung in another place, "Thou
shalt change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same."(2)

CHAP. 3.--OF THE SAME ARGUMENT.

Let us take, then, the case of a wise man, such that his rational soul is
already partaker of the unchangeable and eternal truth, so that he consults
it about all his actions, nor does anything at all, which he does not by it
know ought to be done, in order that by being subject to it and obeying it
he may do rightly. Suppose now that this man, upon counsel with the highest
reason of the divine righteousness, which he hears with the ear of his heart
in secret, and by its bidding, should weary his body by toil in some office
of mercy, and should contract an illness; and upon consulting the physicians,
were to be told by one that the cause of the disease was overmuch dryness of
the body, but by another that it was overmuch moisture; one of the two no doubt
would allege the true cause and the other would err, but both would pronounce
concerning proximate causes only, that is, corporeal ones. But if the cause
of that dryness were to be inquired into, and found to be the self-imposed
toil, then we should have come to a yet higher cause, which proceeds from the
soul so as to affect the body which the soul governs. Yet neither would this
be the first cause, for that doubtless was a higher cause still, and lay in
the unchangeable wisdom itself, by serving which in love, and by obeying its
ineffable commands, the soul of the wise man had undertaken that self-imposed
toil; and so nothing else but the will of God would be found most truly to
be the first cause of that illness. But suppose now in that office of pious
toil this wise man had employed the help of others to co-operate in the good
work, who did not serve God with the same will as himself, but either desired
to attain the reward of their own carnal desires, or shunned merely carnal
unpleasantnesses;--suppose, too, he had employed beasts of burden, if the completion
of the work required such a provision, which beasts of burden would be certainly
irrational animals, and would not therefore move their limbs under their burdens
because they at all thought of that good work, but from the natural appetite
of their own liking, and for the avoiding of annoyance;--suppose, lastly, he
had employed bodily things themselves that lack all sense, but were necessary
for that work, as e.g. corn, and wine, and oils, clothes, or money, or a book,
or anything of the kind;--certainly, in all these bodily things thus employed
in this work, whether animate or inanimate, whatever took place of movement,
of wear and tear, of reparation, of destruction, of renewal or of change in
one way or another, as places and times affected them; pray, could there be,
I say, any other cause of all these visible and changeable facts, except the
invisible and unchangeable will of God, using all these, both bad and irrational
souls, and lastly bodies, whether such as were inspired and animated by those
souls, or such as lacked all sense, by means of that upright soul as the seat
of His wisdom, since primarily that good and holy soul itself employed them,
which His wisdom had subjected to itself in a pious and religious obedience?

CHAP. 4.--GOD USES ALL CREATURES AS HE WILL, AND MAKES VISIBLE THINGS FOR
THE MANIFESTATION OF HIMSELF

9. What,
then, we have alleged by way of example of a single wise man, although of
one still bearing
a mortal
body and still seeing only in part, may be allowably
extended also to a family, where there is a society of such men, or to a city,
or even to the whole world, if the chief rule and government of human affairs
were in the hands of the wise, and of those who were piously and perfectly
subject to God; but because this is not the case as yet (for it behoves us
first to be exercised in this our pilgrimage after mortal fashion, and to be
taught with stripes by force of gentleness and patience), let us turn our thoughts
to that country itself that is above and heavenly, from which we here are pilgrims.
For there the will of God, "who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers
a flaming fire,"(3) presiding among spirits which are joined in perfect
peace and friendship, and combined in one will by a kind of spiritual fire
of charity, as it were in an elevated and holy and secret seat, as in its own
house and in its own temple, thence diffuses itself through all things by certain
most perfectly ordered movements of the creature first spiritual, then corporeal;
and uses all according to the unchangeable pleasure of its own purpose, whether
incorporeal things or things corporeal, whether rational or irrational spirits,
whether good by His grace or evil through their own will. But as the mort gross
and inferior bodies are governed in due order by the more subtle and powerful
ones, so all bodies are governed by the living spirit; and the living spirit
devoid of reason, by the reasonable living spirit; and the reasonable living
spirit that makes default and sins, by the living and reasonable spirit that
is pious and just; and that by God Himself, and so the universal creature by
its Creator, from whom and through whom and in whom it is also created and
established.(1) And so it comes to pass that the will of God is the first and
the highest cause of all corporeal appearances and motions. For nothing is
done visibly or sensibly, unless either by command or permission from the interior
palace, invisible and intelligible, of the supreme Governor, according to the
unspeakable justice of rewards and punishments, of favor and retribution, in
that far-reaching and boundless commonwealth of the whole creature.

10. If, therefore, the Apostle Paul, although he still bare the burden of
the body, which is subject to corruption and presseth down the soul,(2) and
although he still saw only in part and in an enigma,(3) wishing to depart and
be with Christ,(4) and groaning within himself, waiting for the adoption, to
wit, the redemption of his body,(5) yet was able to preach the Lord Jesus Christ
significantly, in one way by his tongue, in another by epistle, in another
by the sacrament of His body and blood (since, certainly, we do not call either
the tongue of the apostle, or the parchments, or the ink, or the significant
sounds which his tongue uttered, or the alphabetical signs written on skins,
the body and blood of Christ; but that only which we take of the fruits of
the earth and consecrate by mystic prayer, and then receive duly to our spiritual
health in memory of the passion of our Lord for us: and this, although it is
brought by the hands of men to that visible form, yet is not sanctified to
become so great a sacrament, except by the spirit of God working invisibly;
since God works everything that is done in that work through corporeal movements,
by setting in motion primarily the invisible things of His servants, whether
the souls of men, or the services of hidden spirits subject to Himself): what
wonder if also in the creature of heaven and earth, of sea and air, God works
the sensible and visible things which He wills, in order to signify and manifest
Himself in them, as He Himself knows it to be fitting, without any appearing
of His very substance itself, whereby He is, which is altogether unchangeable,
and more inwardly and secretly exalted than all spirits whom He has created?

CHAP. 5.--WHY MIRACLES ARE NOT USUAL WORKS.

11. For since the divine power administers the whole spiritual and corporeal
creature, the waters of the sea are summoned and poured out upon the face of
the earth on certain days of every year. But when this was done at the prayer
of the holy Elijah; because so continued and long a course of fair weather
had gone before, that men were famished; and because at that very hour, in
which the servant of God prayed, the air itself had not, by any moist aspect,
put forth signs of the coming rain; the divine power was apparent in the great
and rapid showers that followed, and by which that miracle was granted and
dispensed.(6) In like manner, God works ordinarily through thunders and lightnings:
but because these were wrought in an unusual manner on Mount Sinai, and those
sounds were not uttered with a confused noise, but so that it appeared by most
sure proofs that certain intimations were given by them, they were miracles.(7)
Who draws up the sap through the root of the vine to the bunch of grapes, and
makes the wine, except God; who, while man plants and waters, Himself giveth
the increase?(8) But when, at the command of the Lord, the water was turned
into wine with an extraordinary quickness, the divine power was made manifest,
by the confession even of the foolish.(9) Who ordinarily clothes the trees
with leaves and flowers except God? Yet, when the rod of Aaron the priest blossomed,
the Godhead in some way conversed with doubting humanity.(10) Again, the earthy
matter certainly serves in common to the production and formation both of all
kinds of wood and of the flesh of all animals: and who makes these things,
but He who said, Let the earth bring them forth;(11) and who governs and guides
by the same word of His, those things which He has created? Yet, when He changed
the same matter out of the rod of Moses into the flesh of a serpent, immediately
and quickly, that change, which was unusual, although of a thing which was
changeable, was a miracle.(1) But who is it that gives life to every living
thing at its birth, unless He who gave life to that serpent also for the moment,
as there was need.(2)

CHAP. 6.--DIVERSITY ALONE MAKES A MIRACLE.

And who is it that restored to the corpses their proper souls when the dead
rose again,(3) unless He who gives life to the flesh in the mother's womb,
in order that they may come into being who yet are to die? But when such things
happen in a continuous kind of river of ever-flowing succession, passing from
the hidden to the visible, and from the visible to the hidden, by a regular
and beaten track, then they are called natural; when, for the admonition of
men, they are thrust in by an unusual changeableness, then they are called
miracles.

CHAP. 7.--GREAT MIRACLES WROUGHT BY MAGIC ARTS.

12. I
see here what may occur to a weak judgment, namely, why such miracles are
wrought also by magic
arts;
for the wise men of Pharaoh likewise made serpents,
and did other like things. Yet it is still more a matter of wonder, how it
was that the power of those magicians, which was able to make serpents, when
it came to very small flies, failed altogether. For the lice, by which third
plague the proud people of Egypt were smitten, are very short-lived little
flies; yet. there certainly the magicians failed, saying, "This is the
finger of God."(4) And hence it is given us to understand that not even
those angels and powers of the air that transgressed, who have been thrust
down into that lowest darkness, as into a peculiar prison, from their habitation
in that lofty ethereal purity, through whom magic arts have whatever power
they have, can do anything except by power given from above. Now that power
is given either to deceive the deceitful, as it was given against the Egyptians,
and against the magicians also themselves, in order that in the seducing of
those spirits they might seem admirable by whom they were wrought, but to be
condemned by the truth of God; or for the admonishing of the faithful, lest
they should desire to do anything of the kind as though it were a great thing,
for which reason they have been handed down to us also by the authority of
Scripture; or lastly, for the exercising, proving, and manifesting of the patience
of the righteous. For it was not by any small power of visible miracles that
Job lost all that he had, and both his children and his bodily health itself.(5)

CHAP. 8.--GOD ALONE CREATES THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE CHANGED BY MAGIC ART.

13. Yet it is not on this account to be thought that the matter of visible
things is subservient to the bidding of those wicked angels; but rather to
that of God, by whom this power is given, just so far as He, who is unchangeable,
determines in His lofty and spiritual abode to give it. For water and fire
and earth are subservient even to wicked men, who are condemned to the mines,
in order that they may do therewith what they will, but only so far as is permitted.
Nor, in truth, are those evil angels to be called creators, because by their
means the magicians, withstanding the servant of God, made frogs and serpents;
for it was not they who created them. But, in truth, some hidden seeds of all
things that are born corporeally and visibly, are concealed in the corporeal
elements of this world. For those seeds that are visible now to our eyes from
fruits and living things, are quite distinct from the hidden seeds of those
former seeds; from which, at the bidding of the Creator, the water produced
the first swimming creatures and fowl, and the earth the first buds after their
kind, and the first living creatures after their kind.(6) For neither at that
time were those seeds so drawn forth into products of their several kinds,
as that the power of production was exhausted in those products; but oftentimes,
suitable combinations of circumstances are wanting, whereby they may be enabled
to burst forth and complete their species. For, consider, the very least shoot
is a seed; for, if fitly consigned to the earth, it produces a tree. But of
this shoot there is a yet more subtle seed in some grain of the same species,
and this is visible even to us. But of this grain also there is further still
a seed, which, although we are unable to see it with our eyes, yet we can conjecture
its existence from our reason; because, except there were some such power in
those elements, there would not so frequently be produced from the earth things
which had not been sown there; nor yet so many animals, without any previous
commixture of male and female; whether on the land, or in the water, which
yet grow, and by commingling bring forth others, while themselves sprang up
without any union of parents. And certainly bees do not conceive the seeds
of their young by commixture, but gather them as they lie scattered over the
earth with their mouth.(1) For the Creator of these invisible seeds is the
Creator of all things Himself; since whatever comes forth to our sight by being
born, receives the first beginnings of its course from hidden seeds, and takes
the successive increments of its proper size and its distinctive forms from
these as it were original rules. As therefore we do not call parents the creators
of men, nor farmers the creators of corn,--although it is by the outward application
of their actions that the power(2) of God operates within for the creating
these things;--so it is not right to think not only the bad but even the good
angels to be creators, if, through the subtilty of their perception and body,
they know the seeds of things which to us are more hidden, and scatter them
secretly through fit temperings of the elements, and so furnish opportunities
of producing things, and of accelerating their increase. But neither do the
good angels do these things, except as far as God commands, nor do the evil
ones do them wrongfully, except as far as He righteously permits. For the malignity
of the wicked one makes his own will wrongful; but the power to do so, he receives
rightfully, whether for his own punishment, or, in the case of others, for
the punishment of the wicked, or for the praise of the good.

14. Accordingly,
the Apostle Paul, distinguishing God's creating and forming within, from
the operations
of
the creature which are applied from without,
and drawing a similitude from agriculture, says, "I planted, Apollos watered;
but God gave the increase."(3) As, therefore, in the case of spiritual
life itself, no one except God can work righteousness in our minds, yet men
also are able to preach the gospel as an outward means, not only the good in
sincerity, but also the evil in pretence;(4) so in the creation of visible
things it is God that works from within; but the exterior operations, whether
of good or bad, of angels or men, or even of any kind of animal, according
to His own absolute power, and to the distribution of faculties, and the several
appetites for things pleasant, which He Himself has imparted, are applied by
Him to that nature of things wherein He creates all things, in like manner
as agriculture is to the soil. Wherefore I can no more call the bad angels,
evoked by magic arts, the creators of the frogs and serpents, than I can say
that bad men were creators of the corn crop, which I see to have sprung up
through their labor.

15. Just as Jacob, again, was not the creator of the colors in the flocks,
because he placed the various colored rods for the several mothers, as they
drank, to look at in conceiving.(5) Yet neither were the cattle themselves
creators of the variety of their own offspring, because the variegated image,
impressed through their eyes by the sight of the varied rods, clave to their
soul, but could affect the body that was animated by the spirit thus affected
only through sympathy with this commingling, so far as to stain with color
the tender beginnings of their offspring. For that they are so affected from
themselves, whether the soul from the body, or the body from the soul, arises
in truth from suitable reasons, which immutably exist in that highest wisdom
of God Himself, which no extent of place contains; and which, while it is itself
unchangeable, yet quits not one even of those things which are changeable,
because there is not one of them that is not created by itself. For it was
the unchangeable and invisible reason of the wisdom of God, by which all things
are created, which caused not rods, but cattle, to be born from cattle; but
that the color of the cattle conceived should be in any degree influenced by
the variety of the rods, came to pass through the soul of the pregnant cattle
being affected through their eyes from without, and so according to its own
measure drawing inwardly within itself the rule of formation, which it received
from the innermost power of its own Creator. How great, however, may be the
power of the soul in affecting and changing corporeal substance (although certainly
it cannot be called the creator of the body, because every cause of changeable
and sensible substance, and all its measure and number and weight, by which
are brought to pass both its being at all and its being of such and such a
nature, arise from the intelligible and unchangeable life, which is above all
things, and which reaches even to the most distant and earthly things), is
a very copious subject, and one not now necessary. But I thought the act of
Jacob about the cattle should be noticed, for this reason, viz. in order that
it might be perceived that, if the man who thus placed those rods cannot be
called the creator of the colors in the lambs and kids; nor yet even the souls
themselves of the mothers, which colored the seeds conceived in the flesh by
the image of variegated color, conceived through the eyes of the body, so far
as nature permitted it; much less can it be said that the creators of the frogs
and serpents were the bad angel, through whom the magicians of Pharaoh then
made them.

CHAP. 9.--THE ORIGINAL CAUSE OF ALL THINGS IS FROM GOD.

16. For
it is one thing to make and administer the creature from the innermost and
highest turning-point
of causation, which He alone does who is God the
Creator; but quite another thing to apply some operation from without in proportion
to the strength and faculties assigned to each by Him, so that what is created
may come forth into being at this time or at that, and in this or that way.
For all these things in the way of original and beginning have already been
created in a kind of texture of the elements, but they come forth when they
get the opportunity.(1) For as mothers are pregnant with young, so the world
itself is pregnant with the causes of things that are born; which are not created
in it, except from that highest essence, where nothing either springs up or
dies, either begins to be or ceases. But the applying from without of adventitious
causes,which, although they are not natural, yet are to be applied according
to nature, in order that those things which are contained and hidden in the
secret bosom of nature may break forth and be outwardly created in some way
by the unfolding of the proper measures and numbers and weights which they
have received in secret from Him "who has ordered all things in measure
and number and weight:"(2) this is not only in the power of bad angels,
but also of bad men, as I have shown above by the example of agriculture.

17. But lest the somewhat different condition of animals should trouble any
one, in that they have the breath of life with the sense of desiring those
things that are according to nature, and of avoiding those things that are
contrary to it; we must consider also, how many men there are who know from
what herbs or flesh, or from what juices or liquids you please, of whatever
sort, whether so placed or so buried, or so bruised or so mixed, this or that
animal is commonly born; yet who can be so foolish as to dare to call himself
the creator of these animals? Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, if just
as any, the most worthless of men, can know whence such or such worms and flies
are produced; so the evil angels in proportion to the subtlety of their perceptions
discern in the more hidden seeds of the elements whence frogs and serpents
are produced, and so through certain and known opportune combinations applying
these seeds by secret movements, cause them to be created, but do not create
them? Only men do not marvel at those things that are usually done by men.
But if any one chance to wonder at the quickness of those growths, in that
those living beings were so quickly made, let him consider how even this may
be brought about by men in proportion to the measure of human capability. For
whence is it that the same bodies generate worms more quickly in summer than
in winter, or in hotter than in colder places? Only these things are applied
by men with so much the more difficulty, in proportion as their earthly and
sluggish members are wanting in subtlety of perception, and in rapidity of
bodily motion. And hence it arises that in the case of any kind of angels,
in proportion as it is easier for them to draw out the proximate causes from
the elements, so much the more marvellous is their rapidity in works of this
kind.

18. But
He only is the creator who is the chief former of these things. Neither can
any one be this,
unless
He with whom primarily rests the measure, number,
and weight of all things existing; and He is God the one Creator, by whose
unspeakable power it comes to pass, also, that what these angels were able
to do if they were permitted, they are therefore not able to do because they
are not permitted. For there is no other reason why they who made frogs and
serpents were not able to make the most minute flies, unless because the greater
power of God was present prohibiting them, through the Holy Spirit; which even
the magicians themselves confessed, saying, "This is the finger of God."(1)
But what they are able to do by nature, yet cannot do, because they are prohibited;
and what the very condition of their nature itself does not suffer them to
do; it is difficult, nay, impossible, for man to search out, unless through
that gift of God which the apostle mentions when he says, "To another
the discerning of spirits."(2) For we know that a man can walk, yet that
he cannot do so if he is not permitted; but that he cannot fly, even if he
be permitted. So those angels, also, are able to do certain things if they
are permitted by more powerful angels, according to the supreme commandment
of God; but cannot do certain other things, not even if they are permitted
by them; because He does not permit from whom they have received such and such
a measure of natural powers: who, even by His angels, does not usually permit
what He has given them power to be able to do.

19. Excepting,
therefore, those corporeal things which are done in the order of nature in
a perfectly
usual
series of times, as e.g., the rising and setting
of the stars, the generations and deaths of animals, the innumerable diversities
of seeds and buds, the vapors and the clouds, the snow and the rain, the lightnings
and the thunder, the thunderbolts and the hail, the winds and the fire, cold
and heat, and all like things; excepting also those which in the same order
of nature occur rarely, such as eclipses, unusual appearances of stars, and
monsters, and earthquakes. and such like;--all these, I say, are to be excepted,
of which indeed the first and chief cause is only the will of God; whence also
in the Psalm, when some things of this kind had been mentioned, "Fire
and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind," lest any one should think those
to be brought about either by chance or only from corporeal causes, or even
from such as are spiritual, but exist apart from the will of God, it is added
immediately, "fulfilling His word."(3)

CHAP. 10.--IN HOW MANY WAYS THE CREATURE IS TO BE TAKEN BY WAY OF SIGN. THE
EUCHARIST.

Excepting,
therefore, all these things as I just now said, there are some also of another
kind;
which, although
from the same corporeal substance, are
yet brought within reach of our senses in order to announce something from
God, and these are properly called miracles and signs; yet is not the person
of God Himself assumed in all things which are announced to us by the Lord
God. When, however, that person is assumed, it is sometimes made manifest as
art angel; sometimes in that form which is not an angel in his own proper being,
although it is ordered and ministered by an angel. Again, when it is assumed
in that form which is not an angel in his own proper being; sometimes in this
case it is a body itself already existing, assumed after some kind of change,
in order to make that message manifest; sometimes it is one that comes into
being for the purpose, and that being accomplished, is discarded. Just as,
also, when men are the messengers, sometimes they speak the words of God in
their own person, as when it is premised, "The Lord said," or, "Thus
saith the Lord,"(4) or any other such phrase, but sometimes without any
such prefix, they take upon themselves the very person of God, as e.g.: "I
will instruct time, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go:"(5)
so, not only in word, but also in act, the signifying of the person of God
is imposed upon the prophet, in order that he may bear that person in the ministering
of the prophecy; just as he, for instance, bore that person who divided his
garment into twelve parts, and gave ten of them to the servant of King Solomon,
to the future king of Israel.(6) Sometimes, also, a thing which was not a prophet
in his own proper self, and which existed already among earthly things, was
assumed in order to signify this; as Jacob, when he had seen the dream, upon
waking up did with the stone, which when asleep he had under his head.(7) Sometimes
a thing is made in the same kind, for the mere purpose; so as either to continue
a little while in existence, as that brazen serpent was able to do which was
lifted up in the wilderness,(8) and as written records are able to do likewise;
or so as to pass away after having accomplished its ministry, as the bread
made for the purpose is consumed in the receiving of the sacrament.

20. But
because these things are known to men, in that they are done by men, they
may well meet
with reverence
as being holy things, but they cannot cause
wonder as being miracles. And therefore those things which are done by angels
are the more wonderful to us, in that they are more difficult and more known;
but they are known and easy to them as being their own actions. An angel speaks
in the person of God to man, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" the Scripture having said just before, "The
angel of the Lord appeared to him."(1) And a man also speaks in the person
of God, saying, "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel:
I am the Lord thy God."(2) A rod was taken to serve as a sign, and was
changed into a serpent by angelical power;(3) but although that power is wanting
to man, yet a stone was taken also by man for a similar sign.(4) There is a
wide difference between the deed of the angel and the deed of the man. The
former is both to be wondered at and to be understood, the latter only to be
understood. That which is understood from both, is perhaps one and the same;
but those things from which it is understood, are different. Just as if the
name of God were written both in gold and in ink; the former would be the more
precious, the latter the more worthless; yet that which is signified in both
is one and the same. And although the serpent that came from Moses' rod signified
the same thing as Jacob's stone, yet Jacob's stone signified something better
than did the serpents of the magicians. For as the anointing of the stone signified
Christ in the flesh, in which He was anointed with the oil of gladness above
His fellows;(5) so the rod of Moses, turned into a serpent, signified Christ
Himself made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.(6) Whence it
is said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life;."(7) just as by gazing on that serpent
which was lifted up in the wilderness, they did not perish by the bites of
the serpents. For "our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of
sin might be destroyed."(8) For by the serpent death is understood, which
was wrought by the serpent in paradise,(9) the mode of speech expressing the
effect by the efficient. Therefore the rod passed into the serpent, Christ
into death; and the serpent again into the rod, whole Christ with His body
into the resurrection; which body is the Church;(10) and this shall be in the
end of time, signified by the tail, which Moses held, in order that it might
return into a rod.(11) But the serpents of the magicians, like those who are
dead in the world, unless by believing in Christ they shall have been as it
were swallowed up by,(12) and have entered into, His body, will not be able
to rise again in Him. Jacob's stone, therefore, as I said, signified something
better than did the serpents of the magicians; yet the deed of the magicians
was much more wonderful. But these things in this way are no hindrance to the
understanding of the matter; just as if the name of a man were written in gold,
and that of God in ink.

21. What
man, again, knows how the angels made or took those clouds and fires in order
to signify the
message
they were bearing, even if we supposed that
the Lord or the Holy Spirit was manifested in those corporeal forms? Just as
infants do not know of that which is placed upon the altar and consumed after
the performance of the holy celebration, whence or in what manner it is made,
or whence it is taken for religious use. And if they were never to learn from
their own experience or that of others, and never to see that species of thing
except during the celebration of the sacrament, when it is being offered and
given; and if it were told them by the most weighty authority whose body and
blood it is; they will believe nothing else, except that the Lord absolutely
appeared in this form to the eyes of mortals, and that that liquid actually
flowed from the piercing of a side(13) which resembled this. But it is certainly
a useful caution to myself, that I should remember what my own powers are,
and admonish my brethren that they also remember what theirs are, lest human
infirmity pass on beyond what is safe. For how the angels do these things,
or rather, how God does these things by His angels, and how far He wills them
to be done even by the bad angels, whether by permitting, or commanding, or
compelling, from the hidden seat of His own supreme power; this I can neither
penetrate by the sight of the eyes, nor make clear by assurance of reason,
nor be carried on to comprehend it by reach of intellect, so as to speak thereupon
to all questions that may be asked respecting these matters, as certainly as
if I were an angel, or a prophet, or an apostle. "For the thoughts of
mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. For the corruptible
body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind,
that museth upon many things. And hardly do we guess aright at things that
are upon earth, and with labor do we find the things that are before us; but
the things that are in heaven, who hath searched out?" But because it
goes on to say, "And Thy counsel who hath known, except Thou give wisdom,
and send Thy Holy Spirit from above;"(14) therefore we refrain indeed
from searching out the things which are in heaven, under which kind are contained
I both angelical bodies according to their proper dignity, and any corporeal
action of those bodies; yet, according to the Spirit of God sent to us from
above, and to His grace imparted to our minds, I dare to say confidently, that
neither God the Father, nor His Word, nor His Spirit, which is the one God,
is in any way changeable in regard to that which He is, and whereby He is that
which He is; and much less is in this regard visible. Since there are no doubt
some things changeable, yet not visible, as are our thoughts, and memories,
and wills, and the whole incorporeal creature; but there is nothing that is
visible that is not also changeable.

CHAP. 11.--THE ESSENCE OF GOD NEVER APPEARED IN ITSELF. DIVINE APPEARANCES
TO THE FATHERS WROUGHT BY THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. AN OBJECTION DRAWN FROM THE
MODE OF SPEECH REMOVED. THAT THE APPEARING OF GOD TO ABRAHAM HIMSELF, JUST
AS THAT TO MOSES, WAS WROUGHT BY ANGELS. THE SAME THING IS PROVED BY THE LAW
BEING GIVEN TO MOSES BY ANGELS. WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IN THIS BOOK, AND WHAT REMAINS
TO BE SAID IN THE NEXT.

Wherefore the substance, or, if it is better so to say, the essence of God,(1)
wherein we understand, in proportion to our measure, in however small a degree,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit since it is in no way changeable,
can in no way in its proper self be visible.

22. It
is manifest, accordingly, that all those appearances to the fathers, when
God was presented to them
according to His own dispensation, suitable
to the times, were wrought through the creature. And if we cannot discern in
what manner He wrought them by ministry of angels, yet we say that they were
wrought by angels; but not from our own power of discernment, lest we should
seem to any one to be wise beyond our measure, whereas we are wise so as to
think soberly, as God hath dealt to us the measure of faith;(2) and we believe,
and therefore speak.(3) For the authority is extant of the divine Scriptures,
from which our reason ought not to turn aside; nor by leaving the solid support
of the divine utterance, to fall headlong over the precipice of its own surmisings,
in matters wherein neither the perceptions of the body rule, nor the clear
reason of the truth shines forth. Now, certainly, it is written most clearly
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when the dispensation of the New Testament was
to be distinguished from the dispensation of the Old, according to the fitness
of ages and of times, that not only those visible things, but also the word
itself, was wrought by angels. For it is said thus: "But to which of the
angels said He at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"(4) Whence it appears that all
those things were not only wrought by angels, but wrought also on our account,
that is, on account of the people of God, to whom is promised the inheritance
of eternal life. As it is written also to the Corinthians, "Now all these
things happened unto them in a figure: and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world arecome."(5) And then, demonstrating by
plain consequence that as at that time the word was spoken by the angels, so
now by tim Son; "Therefore," he says, "we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should
let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation?" And then, as though you asked, What
salvation?--in order to show that he is now speaking of the New Testament,
that is, of the word which was spoken not by angels, but by the Lord, he says, "Which
at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them
that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own
will."(6)

23. But
some one may say, Why then is it written, "The Lord said to Moses;" and
not, rather, The angel said to Moses? Because, when the crier proclaims the
words of the judge, it is not usually written in the record, so and so the
crier said, but so and so the judge. In like manner also, when the holy prophet
speaks, although we say, The prophet said, we mean nothing else to be understood
than that the Lord said; and if we were to say, The Lord said, we should not
put the prophet aside, but only intimate who spake by him. And, indeed, these
Scriptures often reveal the angel to be the Lord, of whose speaking it is from
time to time I said, "the Lord said," as we have shown already. But
on account of those who, since the Scripture in that place specifies an angel,
will have the Son of God Himself and in Himself to be understood, because He
is called an angel by the prophet, as announcing the will of His Father and
of Himself; I have therefore thought fit to produce a plainer testimony from
this epistle, where it is not said by an angel, but "by angels."

24. For
Stephen, too, in the Acts of the Apostles, relates these things in that manner
in which
they are also
written in the Old Testament: "Men,
brethren, and fathers, hearken," he says; "The God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia."(1) But lest any
one, should think that the God of glory appeared then to the eyes of any mortal
in that which He is in Himself, he goes on to say that an angel appeared to
Moses. "Then fled Moses," he says, "at that saying, and was
a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years
were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel
of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at
the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto
him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then
said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet,"(3) etc. Here,
certainly, he speaks both of angel and of Lord; and of the same as the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; as is written in Genesis.

25. Can
there be any one who will say that the Lord appeared to Moses by an angel,
but to Abraham
by Himself?
Let us not answer this question from Stephen,
but from the book itself, whence Stephen took his narrative. For, pray, because
it is written, "And the Lord God said unto Abraham;"(3) and a little
after, "And the Lord God appeared unto Abraham;"(4) were these things,
for this reason, not done by angels? Whereas it is said in like manner in another
place, "And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mature, as he sat
in the tent door in the heat of the day;" and yet it is added immediately, "And
he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him:"(5) of
whom we have already spoken. For how will these people, who either will not
rise from the words to the meaning, or easily throw themselves down from the
meaning to the words,--how, I say, will they be able to explain that God was
seen in three men, except they confess that they were angels, as that which
follows also shows? Because it is not said an angel spoke or appeared to him,
will they therefore venture to say that the vision and voice granted to Moses
was wrought by an angel because it is so written, but that God appeared and
spake in His own substance to Abraham because there is no mention made of an
angel? What of the fact, that even in respect to Abraham an angel is not left
unmentioned? For when his son was ordered to be offered up as a sacrifice,
we read thus: "And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt
Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And He
said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one
of the mountains that I will tell thee of." Certainly God is here mentioned,
not an angel. But a little afterwards Scripture hath it thus: "And Abraham
stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and
he said, Here am I And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do
thou anything unto him." What can be answered to this? Will they say that
God commanded that Isaac should be slain, and that an angel forbade it? and
further, that the father himself, in opposition to the decree of God, who had
commanded that he should be slain, obeyed the angel, who had bidden him spare
him? Such an interpretation is to be rejected as absurd. Yet not even for it,
gross and abject as it is, does Scripture leave any room, for it immediately
adds: "For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, on account of me."(6) What is "on account
of me," except on account of Him who had commanded him to be slain? Was
then the God of Abraham the same as the angel, or was it not rather God by
an angel? Consider what follows. Here, certainly, already an angel has been
most clearly spoken of; yet notice the context: "And Abraham lifted up
his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his
horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering
in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord
saw:(7) as it is said to this day, In the mount the Lord was seen."(8)
Just as that which a little before God said by an angel, "For now I know
that thou fearest God;" not because it was to be understood that God then
came to know, but that He brought it to pass that through God Abraham himself
came to know what strength of heart he had to obey God, even to the sacrificing
of his only son: after that mode of speech in which the effect is signified
by the efficient,--as cold is said to be sluggish, because it makes men sluggish;
so that He was therefore said to know, because He had made Abraham himself
to know, who might well have not discerned the firmness of his own faith, had
it not been proved by such a trial. So here, too, Abraham called the name of
the place "The Lord saw," that is, caused Himself to be seen. For
he goes on immediately to say, "As it is said to this day, In the mount
the Lord was seen." Here you see the same angel is called Lord: wherefore,
unless because the Lord spake by the angel? But if we pass on to that which
follows, the angel altogether speaks as a prophet, and reveals expressly that
God is speaking by the angel. "And the angel of the Lord," he says, "called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself I have sworn,
saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, on account of me,"(1) etc. Certainly these words,
viz. that he by whom the Lord speaks should say, "Thus saith the Lord," are
commonly used by the prophets also. Does the Son of God say of the Father, "The
Lord saith," while He Himself is that Angel of the Father? What then?
Do they not see how hard pressed they are about these three men who appeared
to Abraham, when it had been said before, "The Lord appeared to him?" Were
they not angels because they are called men? Let them read Daniel, saying, "Behold
the man Gabriel."(2)

26. But
why do we delay any longer to stop their mouths by another most clear and
most weighty proof,
where
not an angel in the singular nor men in the plural
are spoken of, but simply angels; by whom not any particular word was wrought,
but the Law itself is most distinctly declared to be given; which certainly
none of the faithful doubts that God gave to Moses for the control of the children
of Israel, or yet, that it was given by angels. So Stephen speaks: "Ye
stiff-necked," he says, "and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the
prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed
before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers
and murderers: who have received the Law by the disposition of angels,(3) and
have not kept it."(4) What is more evident than this? What more strong
than such an authority? The Law, indeed, was given to that people by the disposition
of angels; but the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ was by it prepared and pre-announced;
and He Himself, as the Word of God, was in some wonderful and unspeakable manner
in the angels, by whose disposition the Law itself was given. And hence He
said in the Gospel, "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed
me; for he wrote of me."(5) Therefore then the Lord was speaking by the
angels; and the son of God, who was to be the Mediator of God and men, from
the seed of Abraham, was preparing His own advent by the angels, that He might
find some by whom He would be received, confessing themselves guilty, whom
the Law unfulfilled had made transgressors. And hence the apostle also says
to the Galatians, "Wherefore then serveth the Law? It was added because
of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made,
which [seed] was ordered(6) through angels in the hand of a mediator;"(7)
that is, ordered through angels in His own hand. For He was not born in limitation,
but in power. But you learn in another place that he does not mean any one
of the angels as a mediator, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in so far as
He deigned to be made man: "For there is one God," he says, "and
one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."(8) Hence that
passover in the killing of the lamb:(9) hence all those things which are figuratively
spoken in the Law, of Christ to come in the flesh, and to suffer, but also
to rise again, which Law was given by the disposition of angels; in which angels,
were certainly the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and in which,
sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit, and sometimes
God, without any distinction of person, was figuratively signified by them,
although appearing in visible and sensible forms, yet by His own creature,
not by His substance, in order to the seeing of which, hearts are cleansed
through all those things which are seen by the eyes and heard by the ears.

27. But now, as I think, that which we had undertaken to show in this book
has been sufficiently discussed and demonstrated, according to our capacity;
and it has been established, both by probable reason, so far as a man, or rather,
so far as I am able, and by strength of authority, so far as the divine declarations
from the Holy Scriptures have been made clear, that those words and bodily
appearances which were given to these ancient fathers of ours before the incarnation
of the Saviour, when God was said to appear, were wrought by angels: whether
themselves speaking or doing something in the person of God, as we have shown
that the prophets also were wont to do, or assuming from the creature that
which they themselves were not, wherein God might be shown in a figure to men;
which manner of showing also, Scripture teaches by many examples, that the
prophets, too, did not omit. It remains, therefore, now for us to consider,--since
both in the Lord as born of a virgin, and in the Holy Spirit descending in
a corporeal form like a dove.(1) and in the tongues like as of fire, which
appeared with a sound from heaven on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension
of the Lord,(2) it was not the Word of God Himself by His own substance, in
which He is equal and eternal with the Father, nor the Spirit of the Father
and of the Son by His own substance, in which He Himself also is equal and
co-eternal with both, but assuredly a creature, such as could be formed and
exist in these fashions, which appeared to corporeal and mortal senses,--it
remains, I say, to consider what difference there is between these manifestations
and those which were proper to the Son of God and to the Holy Spirit, although
wrought by the visible creature;(3) which subject we shall more conveniently
begin in another book.